Teaching kids -- Inspiring teachers
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Teaching kids -- Inspiring teachers |
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THE BRILLIANCE OF DEBRIEFING by Patricia Meyers One program ends and you are already working on the next – right? Well, let me just say: You need to know the brilliance of debriefing. Why is it brilliant, you ask. Because brilliant is exactly how you will feel when you pull out your notes before your next event and save yourself some headaches. What is debriefing? A simple answer is: The step you MUST get in the habit of taking after every single event you hold. Not just the biggies – every single one. What it is, technically, is reviewing an event to delineate what went well and what needs work; what to remember, what to NEVER FORGET! How do you go about it? Here are some simple, yet proven steps: First: Meet with yourself. You need to know your thoughts before you open yourself up to others’. I think that we often get met with confusion in meetings because we did not take the time to know our own thoughts first. Make some notes about the event (we’ll give you a start on the important questions later). Go through every aspect of the event and leave room in your notes for future thoughts and input. Be thorough. Some things perhaps you won’t open up to others, but be thoroughly brutal with yourself. Second: Get together with those who were crucial to the event. (Full discussion on this meeting below.) Third: Type up your notes, if possible. Make sure the event name and date are clearly written at the top of the page – every page. Put your notes in two places: Make a file for each event and put the debrief notes in the front, so the notes from the last event are the first thing you see when you revisit that file. Set up a special debrief notes file. This way you can benefit from notes you make from your Easter event when you are planning your Harvest Party and so on. Simply file these chronologically with the most recent one in the front. Theoretically the most recent offer you the most help because you have corrected major issues from the old ones. Just imagine grabbing a second cup of coffee someday and reading through a stack of debrief notes. You will see how much you’ve grown, how much more efficient your team has become, and perhaps some things you overlooked when in the throws of planning. This is a great use of time – doesn’t have to be done too often, but it is delightful as an annual siesta.
RUNNING A DEBRIEFING MEETING: First and foremost: It should NOT be a dramatic, critical, finger-pointing, blame-finding meeting. If there was a huge problem with or at the event, that should be dealt with personally with whoever was involved. Debriefing is to be for the purpose of improvement only on normal stuff – the meat of the event. You need to be alert during the meeting; someone may bring up a negative point that may hurt someone else at the meeting. Be careful or you will lose workers over pettiness. Try to keep things about the event itself, not necessarily the people. If there is a negative thing about someone, perhaps you could put that off for a future private discussion. There is always a way to give a positive slant if you ask God to help you do so. We need to face the problems and negatives, but not in a publicly humiliating way. If you did have some serious people problems, I would not hold a group debrief meeting. Perhaps one-on-one meetings with a few folks would be a better way to begin if there are interpersonal issues going on. Start the meeting with a mini-lecture stating the purpose of the meeting: Purposes: 1. We are here to celebrate surviving our recent Festival (or Big Day or Whatever)! Wahoo! 2. We are here to discuss our brilliance and perhaps mention some (if any) not-so-brilliant moments so we can fix them and our meeting after our next event will celebrate only brilliance! 3. We are here to discuss how great things were, so the exhaustion of all the work does not steal the blessing of what God did. 4. We are here to circumvent problems in the future and perhaps laugh at our bumps and lumps along the way. No event is perfect and we are not striving for perfection, just excellence in all we do. I just want to improve each year, that’s my goal. We are not to be worried about each of us saying and doing everything perfectly, but to identify if there are things we can avoid next time. WORD TO THE WISE: I bring up these points because I have heard the cries of children’s ministers dealing with a lot of tender feelings. If you have a problem with that, debrief alone at first. Another idea is to go through these steps by yourself (or with one or two other people) and mail your notes to everyone involved. Tell them to feel free to jot down their thoughts and get them back to you. Then you can send out an updated report later. Sure, it is an extra step or two, but it might be the catalyst to opening people up to reviewing facts without taking everything personally. The key is: do what you need to do in your specific situation – but don’t abandon debriefing.
DEBRIEFING HOW TO: Begin at the beginning of your event – keeping things logical helps keep the conversation upbeat, it is just about the only way to make sure things didn’t get missed, it keeps the tone business; which is a great idea because it helps keep it problem-solving instead of finger-pointing. What do I mean by “begin at the beginning”? Go the where the event started and follow the event chronologically – idea gathering, planning, advertising, marketing, etc. Then go through the actual event chronologically as well:
Fill in your own personal needs, some events may only have 2 points others may have 20. I debriefed from my Easter Message in Children’s Church to my Community Children’s Crusades and Inner-City Events – each debrief was very different. It doesn’t matter if it was huge or just giving a message that you want to critique, go through it chronologically. This is the only thing that will help you next time – and helping you out next time is the purpose of this entire activity. With each segment, review: 1. What went well? 2. What went not-so-well? 3. What went really, really badly? 4. What did the kids love? 5. What did they kids not like at all? 6. What the event effective? In what way(s)? 7. Did it meet our intended objectives? How so or how not? 8. What this event useful or necessary? 9. Do we want to do it again? If so, why? If not, why not? Through this process, you may find out that you spent a lot of time and effort (and perhaps money) on something that no one really enjoyed or that carried no impact. You may find out that what you thought was going to be a highlight was really not. And you may find out (and you probably will) that something you thought was a little thing ended up carrying a HUGE punch. Next time you can work smarter! I cannot tell you how many times this has happened to me. As you review the points with each event, you will get better acquainted with what your particular group enjoys and what is really not necessary. WARNING: This is not to be a fluff determiner. Sure they will enjoy the prizes and the games – do not be swayed by that. What I mean is: you may have spent a lot of time and money getting a huge prop made and it was not a big deal to the kids, but a little tiny character that you thought was going to be a tiny extra was LOVED by the kids and next time you can use it more. Allow me to give you an example: During my big Kids’ Crusades I asked a particular sound man to help out. First because he was really good and I needed to know I could count on him because I know nothing in that department. Secondly because he was a lot of fun and I thought he would enjoy the kids. The first year we just got through the event! Yeah! The second year, I planned a little tiny interaction between us – he argued about a song choice and I overruled him. The kids thought that was hilarious. Later in the night he begged for one of the kids’ favorite puppet songs and I gave in – the kids went wild. Now, we would have done that song anyway, but they kind of felt they had an ally in the back of the room. They loved it. As the years went by we included him a little more each time and it never got old. We were careful to not overdo it, the kids loved it every year. I would never have guessed this was going to develop from asking him to argue with me one year. One year he even formed a ku and had me hauled off by a maintenance guy on a dolly, as I was wheeled by he swiped my hat and ran the event from the back for a few minutes. Of course it was all planned, the puppeteers were ready, etc. But the kids thought it was the funniest thing ever. When I came back, he got in trouble and had to do a stunt. It was all in fun and the kids just loved it. If I hadn’t debriefed and really thought through every step I could have missed that one thing years back that seemed to really excite them – and it was a free bit! You heard it here -- Debriefing is brilliant!
DEBRIEF RULES
FUTURE USE: Before you begin planning your next event, look over your notes from the last one or two events to see if there is anything that applies. If so – YIPPEE! You’ll feel brilliant! If there is nothing that applies – EXCELLENT! Forge ahead! Every few events, review the notes from those events all at one time so you can see if you see a pattern of any issues that seems to keep recurring. Deal with it – don’t ignore it! Now … get planning friends! There’s probably a month with 5 Sundays coming up -- plan a party! Holiday Party -- VBS – Summer Camp – Kids Crusade – WAHOO! It’s time to plan something fun so you can debrief later! The End
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